


Into The Light And Out In The Darkness

by a_crested_eagle



Series: Overwatch Dystopia AU [9]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, Overwatch Dystopia AU, a shit ton of exposition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-11-26 19:36:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20935613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_crested_eagle/pseuds/a_crested_eagle
Summary: Lena and Emily realize something must have happened to Sombra, Widow and the others. As they try to figure out what to do, they hear an unexpected knock on their door.





	1. Knock Knock

**Author's Note:**

> I finally, FINALLY, have an ending in mind for this series!
> 
> It's been almost 6 months and 8 works that I was completely directionless on this AU. But now I have a plan and I hope it's gonna be a good one.
> 
> Long story short, I'm exited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title will become relevant in the other chapters.

The sun was wrestling the clouds, trying to reach the roads of London. It was midday and the clouds had remained undefeated so far, leaving the atmosphere feeling heavy and damp.

Back when Lena was in Overwatch, feeling the wet air meant that she was on a break, on her way to Emily’s home. Emily would have hot tea, or cocoa, depending on the mood, ready. They would talk and kiss and do other things, putting their anxieties and problems away for a few days.

Now she would rather be anywhere but here. Then again, there wasn’t anywhere she could go to avoid the suffocating feeling that current Overwatch’s surveillance had forced upon her. She could feel the tiny robot flying exactly a meter behind her. The bloody thing was always there, recording everything.

She sighed and opened another clothespin. She took a white shirt from the pile in the basket and threw it over the clothesline at the balcony. They would probably not dry until the next day but their drier had broken down just this morning.

The next shirt was black with some purple scratch marks painted over it. A few small holes had formed at its bottom. Lena kept it at her hands for a minute, reminiscing. It was the only shirt she had kept from her teenage years. She smiled. Back then she rocked a purple mohawk, always dressed in black, purple or neon blue. Her only worries being if the cops were about to catch her painting graffiti on the walls or her mum catching her returning in the middle of the night. Now getting out at night was punishable by spending at least two days in custody and a thousand questions from the police.

As she was putting the old shirt on the clothesline, a buzzing came from the earring Amélie had given her. She placed her finger on it.

“Amélie?”

“Your friend’s connections have been compromised Remove the earrings and throw them away. The self-destruct function begins when the earrings loose skin contact.” a robotic voice whispered in her ear.

“What?! How?” she yelled, then remembered the surveillance bot behind her. “Where’s Amélie and the others? Are they alright?” she whispered.

“Please remove the earring and take ten steps back.” the robotic voice whispered back.

“No, no. Are they alright? Come on, I need to know!”

“Please remove the-”

“OK, OK, got it, shush.”

The earring stopped talking but the buzzing remained. Lena looked around the surrounding buildings, trying to get her thoughts in order. Before she managed to do so, Emily got out on the balcony with her. The redhead was acting calm and relaxed but the look she gave to Lena was everything but that. Emily hugged her by the waist and leaned on her.

“Did you got that message as well?”

“Yes... If they got Sombra, there’s a very good chance Amélie got caught as well.”

Emily stayed silent for a bit.

“Maybe they weren’t caught. Sombra has been running all her life, Amélie is, well, Amélie and you said they had Ashe with them. Isn’t she an outlaw?”

“Yes...”

“What I’m getting to is that all of them know how to hide and run from the law. Maybe Sombra sent us a warning because Overwatch got close to them but didn’t get them.” As Emily talked, Lena relaxed a bit.

“Maybe.” she sighed. “Well, there’s nothing we can do anyway, I only hope they figure it out. Whatever the problem is.”

“Right. So let’s take these things off now. Throw them in the drier or something.”

Lena nodded and gave a reassuring smile to her wife. When she turned to get inside, she came face to face with two tiny robots. They were so close she had to squint to see them. Whoever was behind the cameras had definitely heard them.

“Bollocks. They heard us.” Even if there wasn’t a person checking the feeds, Sombra’s name was definitely the number one keyword for the alerts to sound.

“What do we do?” Emily’s voice trembled a little as she nervously checked the streets.

“Get rid of the earring first.”

They put the small earrings in the broken drier and run out of the room. There was a muffled sound like someone punched a pillow and thin lines of smoke began escaping the machine.

“Right, now what?” Emily’s brown eyes were fixed on Lena’s, hopping for a plan or some way to get out of this mess.

Lena didn’t have either of those. As far as she could tell, there were only two options. Wait for Overwatch and cooperate with them, telling them everything in hopes they wouldn’t get locked up. That would mean selling out Sombra and Amélie, but Emily would have a better chance of being safe. Or, they could run and fight Overwatch off. Lena was confident she could deal with Overwatch’s small capture teams in a fight. But she didn’t know where to go or how to hide from Overwatch’s surveillance. She could use her chrono-accelerator to run from Overwatch, but keeping Emily away from getting captured would be almost impossible.

With that final thought, her decision was made. She hated it with every atom of her body, but they would have to answer Overwatch’s questions.

Gritting her teeth, she was about to tell Emily her decision, when the doorbell rank. Emily jumped at the sound.

“They’re here already?”

“No way. Stay here, I’ll go.”

Lena first ran to the chrono-accelerator and put it on. The doorbell rang again. She blinked to the door, took a big breath and opened it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I keep writing at this pace, you can expect the following chapter within a week from now ( "now" being 07/10/19).
> 
> Also, hey, writing with a specific goal in mind is so much smoother and easier to do, who would have thought? /s


	2. (Not) Giving Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ay, I managed to finish within the time limit I had set on myself. That's rare.

The woman at the door was wearing white pants and a light blue shirt. The bright colours a beautiful contrast to her darker skin. A faint blue light emitted from the robotic arm that was in place of her left arm. Smart brown eyes were looking at Lena, analysing her.

“Mrs Oxton, greetings, my name’s Satya Vaswani. My group and I would like to ask you for a pretty big favour.”

Lena was at a loss of words. She only knew the woman at the door from the news. She was the last person she expected to knock at her door, but Symmetra, one of the light-bending architects, was at her doorstep.  
Lena realized that she was staring with her mouth slightly open. She closed it and cleared her throat.

“Um... I- What- Alright... No, wait. Sym- Ms Vaswani? Aren’t you on Overwatch’s wanted list?” Between Sombra’s message and Symmetra’s visit, Lena was having trouble getting her thoughts in order.

“Yes.”

“Right, you joined Overwatch for a few months and then left. They declared you wanted...” Lena was thinking out loud, not noticing Symmetra’s increasingly anxious expression.

Realizing a wanted woman was at her doorstep when Overwatch agents could be there any moment, she began closing the door.

“Wait! You can’t be here! Agents are on their way here now! Go! Run!”

Symmetra stopped the door with her white arm.

“I know. That’s why I’m here. My people are causing a distraction a street away to stall them.”

Lena didn’t know what to think. Symmetra could very well be a hidden Overwatch agent, coming as a friend so they would let their guard down. Or she was as she appeared, a sudden and unlikely ally.

Analysing the situation wasn’t helping so she examined the woman, hoping to somehow determine her intentions.  
Symmetra was anxious. She was constantly shifting her weight from one leg to the other and her eyes were always moving, rarely stopping anywhere for more than a few seconds. If she was a covert Overwatch agent, she was a very bad one.

After a minute, Lena reluctantly opened the door.

“Be quick, we have to leave.”

Symmetra gave her a quick smile and entered.

“I don’t have much time either. I’ll be quick.”

She noticed Emily standing at the edge of the room.

“Umm, hello.”

“Hi.”

The three of them stood like that in the middle of the room, neither knowing what to do.

“One more person. Mmm... It would strain the teleporter but it should be fine.” Symmetra broke the silence mumbling to her self.

“Teleporter?”

“Oh, right. Okay, so, neither of us have much time so I’ll explain the details later but I need you to come with me. Through my teleporter. Overwatch won’t find us at the other side.”

“And where’s that other side?” Emily stepped closer.

“I can’t tell you that. Understand that if I told you and Overwatch caught you, the information would destroy any chance the world has to get rid of them.” As she talked, Symmetra moved back to the doorway and looked at the hallway. “Please decide quickly.”

Lena didn’t know what to think. Emily was in danger because of her. Overwatch agents were about to storm her home. Amélie could be dead or captured. Her saviour and best friend was dead and Jack had turned his organization of peace into one of control. Everything had gone to shit after Winston’s death and there was nothing she could do. Lena would never admit it, or even realize it, but her drive and ideals had died when she saw Winston getting torn apart. Now her only goal was to keep Emily safe. If that meant surrendering to Overwatch, so be it.

She opened her mouth to turn down Symmetra, but Emily was faster.

“Sure we’ll come.” Emily grabbed her scarf from the coat rack near the door. “You’re truly not with Overwatch, right?”

“I used to. But not any more, no. Come,” she gestured and got out to the hallway.

Lena didn’t move. She had tried to give up twice in these last ten minutes and every time she was shut down before she could even speak.

Emily stopped at the doorstep.

“Lena?”

She shook her head and sighed. If Emily wasn’t giving up, nor would she.

She blinked behind the redhead and when Emily turned to face her, she kissed her softly.

When they parted, Emily gave her a curious smile.

“What was that for?”

“Dunno. I just felt like it.”

Emily’s smile widened. She traced her hand over Lena’s and followed Symmetra down the hallway.

The hallway took a turn to the left and they had reached the end. There was a white contraption, glowing soft colours from its round centre. Symmetra activated it with her left hand and an oval of cyan light rose from the centre.

“In here,” Symmetra said.

Emily took a deep breath, gave Lena a reassuring smile and stepped into the light first. She vanished without a sound.

Lena walked behind her. The cyan turned to white and then all she could see was darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something in this chapter's writing feels off and I can't pinpoint what exactly. Not happy with it. But anyway.
> 
> I hope Symmetra's sudden appearance isn't too weird. The next chapter should give some answers that I believe would make some sense.  
Speaking of Symmetra, she may not feel like Symm from the game and here's my reason. I personally relate too much with her character (Aspergers and all that) so I'm projecting some of myself on her. Like, I feel like cannon Symm would be 100% with the Dystopian Overwatch's goals, but I have her oppose them. Her in-game character is calm and collected yet here she is nervous and fidgeting all the time...  
What I'm trying to say is I know she feels different, but I don't care and it was done on purpose.
> 
> I can't give a time for the next chapter (as I did with this one) because I'll be introducing a lot of stuff and I need to actually take some time to think how I'll do it. Having said that, it should be ready and public within a month from now.


	3. A Hole In The Ground

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, how'd you do? Here's a ton of exposition in bad writing.

They were at the end of a long, tight hallway. A lightbulb was hanging over the teleporter they had just used. At the other side of the hallway, sandbags formed a barricade. Faint white light was coming from behind them.

Symmetra threw a round object through the teleporter and, with a wave of her left hand, she powered down the machine.

As they walked forward, a huge figure appeared from a door behind the sandbags. His white hair was brushing the ceiling and his body covered almost the full width of the hallway, his arms the size of Lena’s waist. As he walked closer to the light, the shadows retreated from his face, revealing a scar going through his left eye.

“LENA! EMILY!” his deep voice echoed through the hallway. “YOU’RE HERE! HA-HAAA!”

“Reinhardt??” Lena couldn’t believe her eyes.

He grabbed Lena and Emily into a big bear hug, almost crushing them.

“Rein? What are you doing here- OW!”

He let them breathe.

“Satya here brought us here and helped us hide,” he motioned to Symmetra. “Satya, you should have told me you were going to get them!”

“The teleporters operate on minimal power and it takes a lot to move- to teleport you. You know that, Reinhardt.”

“Oh...” The giant pouted theatrically, causing the women to laugh. He laughed with them loudly and wholeheartedly.

Symmetra remained composed, although a small smile had formed on her face. They walked to the door making small talk.

Lena and Emily were now more at ease, although still surprised. Their surprise was only amplified when the door opened.

They were now in a big round room, measuring about twenty meters in height and width. Spiral stairs were at the sides of the white wall, climbing up to three floors. Multiple doors were covering the length of the walls at every floor and at the bottom. Small balconies were at each level, leaving the centre of the room open. The roof was emitting a strong cyan light. Through the open space at the centre, a backhoe excavator was resting at the unfloored ground. There, a small group of humans and omnics were hauling dirt and stone through a door but otherwise, the area was empty.

“Reinhardt, lead them to the recruitment room. I’ll go bring Torbjörn.”

“Torbjörn is here too?” Lena asked surprised.

“Yes, we came together a few weeks ago.” Reinhardt turned to Symmetra. “Satya, I think he’s at the maintenance room, Bastion needed some adjustments to his arm.”

“Right. I’ll see if he’s done. I’ll be back in a bit.” Symmetra left them and began climbing the stairs to the upper levels.

They followed Reinhardt in the opposite direction, and into another door. Instead of a hallway, this time it was a short, oval room. A white round table was in the middle, surrounded by six chairs.

* * *

“Rein, what is this place?” Tracer asked as soon as she took a seat. Emily sat close to her, with a thoughtful frown on her face.

“Satya didn’t explain much, huh? She’s not very good at explaining things.” Reinhardt closed the door and took a seat across them.

“This is the European Resistance Base. I only learned about them three weeks ago, when we arrived here. They- Actually, Satya can explain this place better than I do. She’s the one who build it.”

“How-”

“European? Sorry, Lena. There are other places like this?” Emily cut Lena off.

“I know of three other, one in Brazil, one in the U.S. and one somewhere in East Asia. There maybe be more but I don’t think so, this organisation is somewhat young.”

“Resistance... Against Overwatch?”

“No... Not exactly.” Reinhardt sighed, his smile gone. “We are against Jack. Overwatch’s anti-war ideology is good, the way he enforces it, isn’t.”

They stayed quiet for a while. Then, Lena broke the silence.

“So how did you find this place, Rein?”

“Oh, I didn’t. When I was forced to retire, Torbjörn invited me to stay with his family. So I did. I spent some time with the kids, sparring with Brigitte, relaxing... I didn’t want to retire, but I have to admit, it was pleasant. Anyway. About three weeks ago, Brigitte’s girlfriend, Hana- you know Hana, Emily?”

“She’s D.VA, right? The MEKA pilot that helped you with taking down Talon?”

“Oh, good, you know. Yes, that’s her. Turns out, when Korea went into lock-down, that included the MEKA pilots. That didn’t sit well with Hana, she wanted to travel the world and to see Brigitte, which I find adorable. I remember when I was younger, before I joined the Crusaders, I-” He paused, looking at a now exited Lena. “You know what? Never mind.”

Emily chuckled at Lena’s disappointed expression.

“Anyway...” Reinhardt continued. “After Torbjörn gave both of them an earful about calculated risks and poor decisions, we gave them supplies and helped them go quietly. Satya appeared at our workshop a few hours later.”

“And got you out. What about Torbjörn’s family?” Emily asked.

“They’re here too. Satya overcharged her teleporter to bring us all here, both ends exploded after. Thankfully I was the last one through, so the kids were alright.”

He turned as the door to the room opened and a short man with a big golden beard entered, Symmetra following behind him.

“You forgot to mention all the shards that landed on your back. Hey, Lena, good to see you.” Torbjörn turned to Emily. “And you must be the Emily that she never stops talking about. Nice to meet you.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

* * *

After pleasantries were exchanged, Symmetra took a seat and began explaining.

She spoke of why she worked with Overwatch at the early days of Jack’s rise to power. The first projects were inspiring. They were creating homes, museums, parks and much more in damaged or poor areas. They were making sure that people were safe and taken care of. Then, slowly, Overwatch’s grip tightened. Curfews were established first, then the construction priorities shifted more to building Overwatch outposts first. Then server hubs for the surveillance servers. House’s and basic amenities fell lower and lower in the priorities list. She had seen this behaviour before, only Vishkar was never able to reach these levels of control. When an order came to demolish the remaining favelas of Rio De Janeiro, she left the same night.  
She walked through the old buildings and was abducted by six men with green bandanas on their arms. They brought her to Lúcio Correia dos Santos, the world-famous DJ that had risen from the favelas she had helped destroy when she was with Vishkar. He had returned to Rio and was the leader of a meagre resistance force of about ten men. After learning that she had left Overwatch, he offered her a job. She was to create a haven for the resistance members to retreat, away from Overwatch’s surveillance. It took her a month, during which she was basically a prisoner, but she managed to create a base in a cave, deep inside the cliffs of Corcovado.  
Having earned Lúcio’s trust, she was assigned to create more of these bases. She travelled all over the world, blending with refuge caravans, train-hopping or even by letting Overwatch agents arrest her, then breaking free when they were close to where she needed to be. Other than the one in Rio, she established bases in New York, Prague and Hong Kong. Then using her teleporter technology she connected them all. Any local entrances were cut off by controlled landslides and Lúcio focused on gaining more supporters and igniting rebellious sparks with his music. As he did that, she was tasked with finding and recruiting people that were known for being against Overwatch.

When she finished, Lena shared the latest of what she knew about Sombra and Amélie. Upon hearing the uncertainty of the situation, Symmetra cursed.

“_Mala!_ Then I need to go. Torbjörn, you’re in charge until I get back. Lena, Emily, were there any others with Sombra and Amélie?”

“Yea, two more. An omnic and a woman.”

“Sizes?”

“What?”

“Sizes. How big were they? Were they fat, thin, tall, short? I need their approximate mass.”

“The woman was about Amélie’s height and build, the omnic was about Reinhardt’s size.”

“Oh...” Symmetra looked worried. “It won’t take long for Overwatch to figure out where we are if I have to keep emitting pulses that big. We may have to abandon this base. Be extra careful. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

She waved goodbye and got out of the room with quick determined steps.

Emily turned to Reinhardt.

“What does she mean by ‘emitting pulses’?”

“I don’t really get it myself. I think it’s some sort of radiation pulse that the teleporters emit when they get overworked. The bigger the mass of the person, the bigger the risk. When she brought us here, we had about five Overwatch patrols searching the area above us.”

“So the area is most likely marked.” Lena pointed out.

“Yes. We may have to run the moment she brings them here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bastion was staying with Torb's family. They're friends. I thought I should mention that. We'll probably see more of him.
> 
> We're going back to Amélie and the others on the next part.


End file.
